Subject, Object, Verb

0Chris • 1st Jul 2008 • Misc, Pot O' Ideas, Web Development • object, subject, usage, verb, website

According to the paper today some experiments were done at Chicago university to see how people describe things without words.

This was more in the sense of gesticulating/sign language, so speakers of different languages trying to convey stuff to each other, or if you can't speak even in your native language, how do you get your point across.

Results were that all languages do it in a similar way i.e. description of the subject then object then verb - I suppose an example could be Fire -> wood -> light

If this is the case then it's more of an underlying human behaviour as opposed to a language or culture specific trait.

I don't know if a similar argument may also apply to conveying information on a web page, but it's an interesting thought to bare in mind, since it's still interactive non-verbal communication (in contrast to a magazine or a book for example)

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